“What is that you call your other fidus Achates?” he demanded.
“Bouncing Bet,” rejoined Tommy glibly, and looked for the smile that usually followed the use of that appellation. But he failed to see any evidence of humorous appreciation.
The village of South Paulding consisted practically of one long street which was really a beautiful avenue. The Phillips house stood about half-way between the limits, the greater number of dwelling-houses being above, towards Paulding, and the group of shops, the post office and grammar and primary schools below. Meadowcroft, who had never lived in the country before, enjoyed watching the straggling procession that passed the window almost continuously from morning until night. And he particularly enjoyed the school children who went back and forth with a certain regularity twice daily.
“I suppose, Tommy, you mean the big girl I see going to school with the little ones?” he asked quietly.
Tommy nodded. “They’re not so little, you know, Mr. Meadowcroft, those girls she walks with. It’s only that they look little ’side o’ her,” he explained. “Why, even I would look small myself—I mean sort of—if I was to walk with her, even if I stood up straight, which I don’t always.”
He sat suddenly erect, but humped down again almost immediately.
“Poor thing! Is she a bit stupid, Tommy, or is it worse than that?” Meadowcroft asked. In his pity, he had averted his eyes when the girl passed as he would have refrained from looking at a cripple.
“Stupid!” cried Tommy. “Gee! Bouncing Bet stupid! Why, she’s the best scholar in my class—the very best.” He paused, then added loftily: “She takes a really intelligent interest in my magic. There’s no fooling her like you can the fellows—sometimes. She ain’t like some girls that say they like it to be polite and wouldn’t look on while I do one trick for fear they’d be blown up or lose their eyebrows.”
“But why is she so backward?” queried Meadowcroft in genuine surprise. “Surely, she ought to be going over to Paulding to the high school at her age.”
“O, she ain’t old. She’s just big of her age, you know, Mr. Meadowcroft,” rejoined the boy. “She ain’t so old as me and most of the others. She’s just—well, big. That’s why they call her Bouncing Bet, you see.”